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First off, my condolences for your grandfather. He sounds like an amazing person and I'm sorry your loss.
Now. Happy Birthday! You are just turning 20? You are way ahead of the curve my friend. I understand your sense of urgency, though I didn't have it when I was 20.
Here is some unsolicited feedback, feel free to ignore anything that does not resonate with you
Be patient with yourself. The fact that you are a breakeven live trader at 20 is kind of bonkers to me and you may have more of your proverbial sh*t together than you think. Even if you were to regress for a while and decide to take time off from trading you would not be falling behind at all.
You are mentioning emotions a lot, and I see you are talking about the ES in your posts. Traders much better than me keep pointing me back to the micros when I inexplicably trade like sh*t with the ES. Take this under serious consideration. I'm finding protective-stops based on actual price-action and price-levels the market is responding to to be more useful than arbitrary "Money-Stops" ie. "2 point stops because that is my limit", you know? Often the risk is much greater though. I feel like we're pretty much in a similar boat so I will leave actual trading advice to more experienced traders as I face similar problems, my friend.
Just want to wish you the best. I don't know your situation, but if you are feeling pressure about losing money, no one ever blew up maxing out their 401K or investing part of their money in a Janus mutual fund (or Vanguard, etc). Something to keep in mind, allocating money for riskier assets will seem much more comfortable if you have money working for you in boring investments, growing over time.
Good luck and I look forward to reading your journal!
You’re a killer and I’ve enjoyed catching up on your elite journal the past couple days. Seems like you are moving in the right direction more and more each month!
I’ve been using stop loss levels based on market levels ever since I began trading. It always made more sense to me than arbitrary levels to me as well.
I feel no pressure regarding monetary loss, but do feel a pressure to succeed.
I’ve maxed out my IRA contribution since I was 14 and it’s grown nicely in this bull market. I now trade the aforementioned collection of automated strategies on SPY in my IRA account and hold bonds. The strategies have clobbered the market over my test period of the past 26 years and I anticipate this outperformance to continue. That’s about as ‘boring’ as it gets for me, but you are right that it takes the pressure off of allocating to riskier endeavors such as daytrading.
Thanks for your comment Snax! I’ll see you over in the new journal! (Hopefully in a couple weeks!)
My condolences on the loss of your Grandfather. That sort of loss, even if not completely unexpected, can take some time to process so going back to Sim is a great idea even if you didn't change up your strategy.
Your changes sound very well thought out and methodical. I too am looking a little deeper into VSA to see if it will add anything to my trading. I'm working on a couple books and will be trying out some of NT8's new indicators to see if they will be helpful or just more clutter on the screen.
In any case I look forward to seeing your updates and wish you the very best in your trading and in your life.
Namasté
Mike
NW Trader
There is no path to happiness. Happiness is the path.
I'm sorry about your grandfather. It is not an easy thing when you lose someone important to you, and I know it. Time will help, is what I have to say. This may not seem like much comfort, but it is true. In the meantime, just stay in touch with the fact that you love him. It will carry you through the hard parts.
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Otherwise, this is a big post. Congrats on being 20. This is an amazing time, and much is ahead. It's impossible to know how any of it will work out. Have fun with it.
Having issues with your trading is perfectly natural, and realizing you have to change your method and the mental aspects of trading is a good development. I would say that the mental stuff is about 10,000 times more important than the method stuff, but you have to have a method that works for you even when you get your mental stuff right, so they are not actually separate. I would say just don't make the mistake of concentrating too much on solving the method-type problems and overlook the fact that it's you clicking the mouse. (If you're talking about a purely automated system, guess what? It's you making the decisions about how the system will act... you are part of the equation always.) You're never going to be devoid of your emotions or your personal psychology/outlook. Getting this in line with how the market acts is the thing.
The search for the right method consumes a lot of time and is not the best way to spend it. It's not unimportant, but it's not the whole story.
Good. I had decided I would start to pester you about going Elite. I'm glad I didn't have to. You're doing too good a job and you're too dedicated to your craft not to be Elite, and it's great that you've taken this step. The real FIO community has been awaiting you. Welcome. (It's about damn time. )
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Overall, good job. man. We will be pulling for you.
Bob.
When one door closes, another opens.
-- Cervantes, Don Quixote
Thanks, as always, for sharing your thoughts! I'm excited to dive deep into re-working my methodology and mindset. See you on the flip side in the new journal!
Sorry about your loss, happy birthday. My gma passed this year. I am glad to read that you have a good family. Many people do not, so that makes me happy to read. Sim until you're ready.
You may bounce between sim and live several times, but that's all good. Do what's right for you. We do things in our own time. Things that work for some may not work for you. This is a competition with yourself. Follow the crowd in terms of the market, and look at concepts that are mentioned in the books, they work. It takes time to learn how to implement. Think simplicity instead of complexity. Nothing in trading is new. Godspeed!